


I Cast Haste

by TwinVax



Series: Little Moments [4]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Caleb's POV, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Late Night Conversations, Other, caleb is concerned, ep 20 spoilers, friendly conversation, good use of spells, nott got hurt, spoilers for episode 20, spoilers up to episode 20, taken directly from the episode, the others are mentioned - Freeform, written canon scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-05-30
Packaged: 2019-05-13 17:49:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14753480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwinVax/pseuds/TwinVax
Summary: Haste is caste, then an intimate conversation is had.





	I Cast Haste

Haste had only marginally helped, but Caleb was glad it was of use at all to Nott's safety. There wasn’t much he himself could do for her in a fight besides provide a spell to make her more effective and hard to hit. The usual way they fought when up against an enemy when they had been on their own, still as effective in a group where she continued to be the one who fought close to the enemy. 

She was at least able to get a few hits in with her crossbow before the swamp creature grabbed her, doing its best to hold on to her body even while Caleb could see her shaking rapidly. He was sure only a little of that was from fear as the pain made her screech, while the rest of it was the spells effect on her as it siphoned off extra energy her body wasn’t using. 

The others were quicker to attack the beast hurting his friend, for which he was grateful, even if their efforts came up fruitless until his strongest, magic energy draining Magic Missiles spell, disrupted and loosened the creatures muscles long enough for Nott to quite literally shake herself out of it’s grip. 

Caleb’s relief did not last long for that unfortunately, as the creature caught her while she tried to flee, leaving her unconscious and bleeding heavily on the ground. He focused on the Haste, keeping it from ending, as the spell shook her body, forcing her to keep moving on the ground as though she had her own personal earthquake that helped to keep her away from the creature when it tried to bite down on her. 

Its teeth just barely missed grabbing her again, but that was enough for Caleb’s own piece of mind for the moment, since it meant he had chosen the right spell to use to help her stay relatively safe. Even if she was bleeding from multiple wounds and unconscious, her body doing its best to shake more blood out with every twitch. 

The fight was over with soon after that, once Fjord took the creature down with his own spells, seemingly as pissed about it cutting Nott down as Caleb was, if the horribly unfortunate pun was any indicator, and Jester used her duplicate to bring Nott back from the brink of death. 

Nott argued with Fjord about his kill, and Caleb breathed easy knowing his oldest friend was safe. That the group was still a good idea, even with the new danger it put himself and her in, meant it would continue working like he and Fjord wanted. 

Caleb took a moment to breathe, watching a still slightly injured Nott catch up with Jester as his spell came to it’s end, no doubt leaving her exhausted from the Haste effects, before he joined them to see whatever bird the tiefling had dragged them into the fight to save.

* * *

“It’s not really haunted, is it?” Nott asked hesitantly as they walked towards their shared room, glancing around the corridor fearfully the way he knew was natural as breathing to her. 

He wanted to assuage her fears on this, but he was aware ghosts existed, so he decided on a middle ground, “I highly doubt it, although its possible. And also, Nott, I would not worry. The spookiest thing in this place is us.” 

She nodded, illusory hair almost natural in its bounce as the two of them got to their room door, “That is true.” she muttered, bringing a hand up to rub at her eye as they opened the door and walked into the room. 

Caleb watched carefully as the halfing illusion shimmered and dissolved away as Nott’s true form appeared from out of the spell, only marginally injured now after being healed by Jester, as the spells time limit fortunately ended just a few seconds after they shut the door, locking out the prying eyes of the few locals sat in the tavern. 

The room was only slightly damp and uncomfortable to Caleb, though not as bad as it could be for an inn that existed in a swamp, and would work just fine to help Nott gain much needed rest after his spell exhausted her more than a day normally would. 

Seeing her swimming in Jester’s green cloak instead of comfortably fit in her own gray, now that the others seemed to be under the impression the kenku needed a disguise, was a sight he wasn’t quite used to. 

That he was used to seeing her hidden, instead of uncovered and happy like she was able to be when it was only them and the group, reminded him of what she had told them the night before. The look she had after their fight with the goblins and her talk of the halfling she had befriended, who no doubt was the reason behind her favored disguise. 

The words he remembered of how much she didn’t want to look as she did, and the fear she held about going back and her uncertainty, struck something inside him as he watched her climb onto the bed that forced the words out before he could think about it. 

“You know, I think for obvious reasons now, I have kept a lot of things close to the vest, and those things are out. Um,” he took a moment to frown and collect himself, before he looked back at her and continued, 

“If you ever wanted to talk about anything, now, or-or later after you think about it, you are my friend, an-and-and you can talk to me. If you want.” he finished, swaying on his feet nervously where he stood beside the bed, before he sat on it to be level with her so she would not have to look up at him. 

“Well thank you.” her eyes did not quite meeting his own as she looked down for a moment, “You know, I-I don’t want to burden you w-with, you know, m-my-my shit.” she said gently, “You’ve got your own fish to fry and your own battles to wage, and I don’t want you to have to worry about me or anything.” 

She looked at him, expression earnest as she continued, “That means a lot to me, and I just want you to be okay! It sounds like this person who corrupted you is out there still and we need to find him and, you know...kill him or whatever? If that’s something that you want to do?” She sounded unsure, but continued before he could get a word in or contradict her.

“I’m fine focusing on that, I got my own issues, but...but I’m fine taking care of yours first.” she leaned closer, like she were about to tell a secret, voice a bit higher as she kept looking directly at him, taking one of his hands in both her own, “The thing is, you know, your story that you poured out to us. To me and Beau the other day, it was very sad and I’m so sorry that you had to go through it, but I have to say in a way. I-I’m a little bit jealous.” she admitted. 

He didn’t hide the confusion that came from that statement, letting it screw up the expression he surely had on his face as he tried to puzzle that out, that she noticed and alarmingly stuttered out, “Because, you know, your - you’ve done this horrible thing, not to make light of it or anything. It’s bad, a-and-and, we can all tell that you’ve, your wearing it, you know, in your dirty clothes and your mussed hair-” 

He held a hand up to gesture as himself, if only to stop her and let her relax for a moment from this line of thought, “I’m very clean right now.” he said quietly, voice gentle.

“I know, but, I mean, still.” Her hands came up to her head, mimicking what he supposed was dirt as she continued, completely veered away from the topic about her, “You know when your dirty and it rains, like streaks down and dries? That’s the sort of thing you got going on right now.” she finished quickly, dropping her hands after the demonstration. 

Caleb bit his cheek, annoyed that Jester had managed to somehow get Nott bothered by such a thing when she hadn’t the previous six months of travel, and sighed, “I mean, yeah an hour in, but we were just in the rain for like forty eight hours-”

“Yeah, but you got like, a lot of dirt on you.” she said, eyes bright as she smiled, suppressing a laugh that Caleb knew was there. 

Caleb was fairly suspicious as to if Jester had actually put her up to this, but she was happier at the least.

Her joking stopped a bit more abruptly then Caleb expected though, as she looked serious once more and resumed the previous discussion they had gotten sidetracked from, “All I’m saying is; I feel like you can, you can get revenge, you can maybe even get redemption for what you’ve done, and you can become a better person! An-an-and you can do good to-to counteract the bad that you’ve done in your past. And maybe someday there will be an end to your suffering.” she said, hopeful in a way that Caleb did not feel or agree with at all. 

He also felt strangely as though she was saying she couldn’t get such things, but he wouldn’t bring it up until she was ready for that discussion, “You are getting ahead of yourself, okay,” he started, pressing a hand to her arm as he looked her in the eyes, “ _I am a garbage person_.” he stated clearly. 

“Lets just put that on the table, but uh, while I am a piece of shit, we can help each other in the short term. And I- this is going further than I anticipated.” He sighed, moving on the bed to a more comfortable position as he refocused himself, “I just meant that if-if - These people we are with are all interesting and great and _untrustworthy_ but great.”

He looked Nott in the eye as he took a breath and admitted, “But I _trust_ you. Which wasn't really true three weeks ago.” The duel expressions from the statement it caused her was evident in the smile she had, but he continued, “I just mean I wasn’t- I,” he paused, trying to find what he could say.

Caleb shook his head as he sighed, “I don’t know, words don’t do it. Talk to me if you want.” he finished, starting to pull down the sheets to get into the bed for a proper nights rest. 

Nott at least seemed to accept his words if not agree with them completely as she nodded, “Alright, thank you for the offer.” she said gently, getting under the blankets with him this time instead of sleep at the foot. 

It was to be one of those nights, he supposed. Not that he ever minded, as it was usually a night when they needed such comforts of close contact. 

“Good night, Caleb.” Nott whispered tiredly. 

Caleb waited until he heard her breathing slow and was sure she was deep in her sleep, the day more straining for her with her near brush with the Raven Queen, before he whispered back in the dark of the room, “Good night, Nott.” 

Caleb fell asleep soon after, his own exhaustion finally claiming him. 


End file.
